How To Use People's LazinessTo Sell Your Product

Laziness is the easiest emotional motivator a copywriter can use to make his salesletter more profitable.

Most people are lazy in one way or another. That's what procrastination is all about. People wish they could have everything but don't necessarily want to put in the effort to achieve their dreams.

Understanding this one fact about human psychology is the secret to making big profits with your sales letter.

I found an excellent example of
how to use laziness
in your sales letter in a promotion by Jimmy D. Brown. Jimmy has been around forever in the Internet marketing game and has earned millions using the same techniques he teaches in his courses.

Personally, I found his course to be exceptionally easy to understand and act on, because of how clearly he explains things. I've never seen anyone else make things so easy. (I just realized something... The words I just used in the previous sentence make me a good fit to respond to the laziness motivator, as you'll see in a moment...)

Since he is such good example to follow, I have included an analysis of the structure of his sales letter, in addition to how he has used laziness to sell his product.

In case you are new in the Internet Marketing world, it is well known that a membership site will give you the easiest money you will ever see.

Notice that in the header itself Jimmy is aligning himself with the conversation already going on in the reader's head: "How To Setup Your Own Membership Site In 48 Hours Or Less".

Robert Collier, in the
Robert Collier Letter Book
discusses this idea in the very first chapter as the most important principle in copywriting. You need to immediately fit into the conversation already going on in the prospect's head otherwise your reader won't be suggestible to your proposal.

Neuro Linguistic Programmers call this "rapport".
Joe Vitale
considers it as keeping your buyers "trance" going. When you do this, your buyer instantly relaxes and opens her mind to being influenced by you because you "think like her".

Once rapport is established, Jimmy goes on to pummelling the prospect's mind with subconscious triggers that make them feel like they won't have to do anything and they will make lots of money:

"The easiest way to get monthly recurring income without a lot of work struggling to come up with original content, without buying high-priced scripts and without waiting around for results. In fact..."
Can you imagine one sentence more loaded with emotional triggers?

"The easiest way"

"monthly recurring income"

"without a lot of work"

[no] "struggling to come up with original content"

"without buying high-priced scripts"

"without waiting around for results"

If you were in his target market and had been fantasizing about the easy money you could make by setting up a membership site, could you resist an offer like that?

Frankly, after a pre-head like that, the headline closes the sale right away for many people (myself included):

"All You Need Is One Article Written And In Just 48 Hours You can Be Taking Orders From Your Own 100% Original Membership Site"

Now, take notice of the structure of the overall sales letter:

The first part is dedicated to resonating with the laziness of the prospect.

The next part describes all the "hard work" that he doesn't want to do. By doing this, Jimmy establishes an even stronger bond with the reader because she feels "understood".

The third part of the sales letter describes the "easy work" it takes to be successful. The five points he has highlighted cover the five pet-peeves of the lazy entrepreneur:
too much work, ongoing pressures, too much money, too much time involved and struggling to stay afloat on an ongoing basis.

A person could build a successful product based on solving any one of the above "hassles", but Jimmy is leaving nothing to chance. He is offering to solve all five problems.

The fourth part of the sales letter gives examples of some easy projects that anyone could do. He is not leaving anything for the prospect's imagination. If he had not used examples at this point, the reader would have to think about the specific projects he would have to do.

As a copywriter, you never want the reader to have to think. The moment you do that, you risk losing the reader's attention because the act of thinking takes them away from the words on the page. Instead of just reading along and being led to the "obvious" conclusion, the concentration is broken... perhaps never to come back.

In the last part of the letter, just before the close (which is brilliant), Jimmy describes the details of his course. You'll notice the words "quickly" and "easy" show up many times.

In fact, read the entire sales letter and notice how many times these words are used. These words are what motivates the laziness emotional trigger in people. No matter what product you may be selling, if you can make it "easy" and "quick" people will be more inclined to buy from you.